NCTC worse than POTA, TADA: Mamata tells PM

'There is no breaking news'

Dubbing the National Centre for Counter Terrorism as worse than the Prevention Of Terrorism Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey her reservations over the counter-terrorism provision.

"The meeting was good," Banerjee said when asked by reporters about her discussions with the prime minister for the first time after the Dinesh Trivedi issue broke out.

"There is no breaking news," she remarked when asked whether there were any rifts between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

'NCTC is worse than TADA and POTA'

Banerjee also defended her party's walk-out in the Lok Sabha over the NCTC, saying since the Trinamool Congress was part of the government, it can not vote against any resolution and therefore it has maintained decorum by walking out.

"The NCTC is worse than TADA and POTA," she said.

Her meeting with the prime minister appeared to have the desired result. Mukul Roy, whom the Trinamool Congress has named as the successor of Dinesh Trivedi in the post of the railway minister, will be sworn in on Tuesday.

'The common people should not suffer'

Banerjee, who forced Trivedi to quit as the railway minister after he proposed a hike in the passenger fares in the rRailway budget, indicated that there will be some roll-back if there is a railway minister of the Trinamool Congress.

"If our nominee becomes railway minister, then we will modify the fares. There is no problem in a hike in upper-class fares. We have no objection, it is tolerable. But for those who are poor, who travel daily in trains or those who travel in sleeper classes, it matters," she said before leaving to attend the Trinamool Parliamentary party meeting.

She said, "The common people travel in sleeper classes. Whatever we do, the common people should not suffer. This is our policy."

Banerjee said she has no plans to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi who is also the UPA chairperson as "she is not well. I do not want to disturb her".